Car insurance "legal protection"

foolsgold · 27 May 2006 at 4:16PM

Is there any point in taking the legal protection option when buying car insurance or is it just a way for the insurers to take extra money?

Astaroth · 27 May 2006 at 4:26PM

It depends....

Motor legal expenses covers the cost of getting your uninsured losses/ personal injury claim from the other party when involved in a non-fault accident.

Solicitors conditional funding ("no win, no fee") is only available for cases above the small track limit (which is anticipated to go up significantly) so for personal injury cases it isnt much of an issue but to get things like hire car charges, excesses, loss of earnings etc you would be on your own in trying to get the money back if you dont have legal expenses and there was no injury involved in the claim

crossleydd42 · 27 May 2006 at 6:40PM

It's like buildings/contents insurance who also offer legal cover in the case of house-related disputes. It's your call as to whether you take up the option and how cautious you are about things going wrong!
Suppose you were to have an uninsured driver hit you - the legal cover would be useful then.

flang · 27 May 2006 at 8:02PM

Legal Protection is well worth the money, Ive just had a car accident where a lady driver didnt give way to me at a roundabout and is lying so she doesnt loose her no claims! Luckly i had legal protection and my solicator is fighting my case saving me LOTs of time and money!

raket · 10 June 2006 at 11:38PM

flang wrote:

Luckly i had legal protection and my solicitor is fighting my case saving me LOTs of time and money!

.. and I've got the opposite. Didn't understand 'legal protection' thinking it was an add on for legal advice for household/other issues. Now we've encountered an accident in which our vehicle was written off. We were given false insurance info and have spent the last 15 months trying to trace the car owner, who turns out to be a motor trader who the police describe as a 'shadow'. Had we taken out the legal protection, we could have left the stress and hassle to the insurance company. Learned a very hard lesson! Pay it!

stormCat99 · 13 June 2006 at 8:08PM

I'm unsure on this too, and am still not clear after reading this thread.

I thought legal protection was for assistance in case of an accident. However, a couple of years ago someone drove into the back of me (when I was stationary), and rather than claim through insurers I used a separate company. I think they were called Britannia and they seemed to do car hire but also got involved in accidents, where they provide you with a hire car whilst your vehicle is being repaired, and pursue the other party for you.

They sorted out all our repairs, the other person paid for them, and we had a great hire car thrown in.

If we had a similar situation again I would not hesitate to do the same - so is there a situation where legal cover would still be needed? Thanks.

Astaroth · 13 June 2006 at 8:15PM

Yes - credit hire (which you describe) is only available in cases where you are not to blame at all.

Take a case like a narrow lane collision where you are both partially liable the likes of Helphire will not get involved as they would only get 1/2 the money back but legal expenses still applies in these cases.

The other problem with credit hire is you have to read the terms and conditions very carefully as if liability isnt settled as it is expected you can end up with a large bill. When I used to handle claims we were defending one claim and as the other party went to one of these companies and we successfuly argued liability and the fact he got too good a car he ended up getting a bill for £7,500 (He refused to pay it and so got sued himself)

stormCat99 · 14 June 2006 at 8:21AM

Thanks Astaroth, I understand that now. I guess in future I'll definitely be going with legal cover just in case.

One other question then. We have 2 cars with 2 separate insurance policies. If I take out legal cover on one policy, does that cover ME, or the car? In other words do I need to pay for legal protection on both policies?

Astaroth · 14 June 2006 at 8:54AM

Legal cover covers the vehicle rather than the person so it would cover any of the eligable drivers on the policy plus any passengers in the vehicle (or people getting in or out of the vehicle) and somewhat interestingly it will normally cover the passengers to sue you as the driver if you are at fault for the accident (well it was interesting to me but probably not others

)

You would need to have LE for each vehicle you insure.

shopndrop · 16 June 2006 at 8:53AM

I used to work for a Legal Expenses Insurance Company and would NEVER NOT HAVE car insurance without legal expenses cover. For the relatively small amount you pay, it could end up saving you a huge amount of money if you did have an accident if the other driver was uninsured or drove off etc.

vickyn_2 · 17 June 2006 at 8:39AM

Car/Home Insurance Legal Cover can also be used for a multitude of other legal uses, for example, when I took my last employer to a tribunal I was told I could have used a solicitor via Insurance legal cover for this action, unfortunaetly, at the time I didn't have it so represented myself. Now I always take legal cover with one of them (I don't believe you need it on both).

Car insurance "legal protection"

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